International aid agencies were rushing to avert the spread of
disease in tsunami-devastated coastal regions across southern Asia
last night as the number of people reported to have been swept to
their deaths passed more than 24,000.

A day after the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years unleashed
a catastrophic surge of giant waves across the Indian Ocean,
authorities in the worst-affected countries were battling to head
off an even bigger toll among those who survived the initial
surge.

Millions of survivors have lost everything, and now urgently
need medicine, shelter, food and clean water. "This is a massive
humanitarian disaster and the communications are so bad we still
don't know the full scale of it. Unless we get aid quickly to the
people many more could die," said Phil Esmond, head of Oxfam in Sri
Lanka.

A DFAT spokesman said about 7,000 Australians were in the
affected areas, with 12 people confirmed injured in overseas
hospitals.

The spokesman said Australian consular officials had set up an
office in Phuket. The office is at Phuket's Hilton Hotel, at 333
Thanon Patak (Patak Road), Karon Beach and can be contacted on (66)
76 370 672.

Australia yesterday joined a massive international relief
effort, donating $10 million in financial aid, and sending two
Hercules aircraft loaded with bottled water and emer-gency shelter
to the region.

Prime Minister John Howard said the nation was hoping good news
would come for the families of the missing Australians. "All
Australians try as best they can to share your grief and your
anxiety and we can only hope that in each case there is good news,"
he said.

The United States Geological Survey yesterday upgraded its
estimate of the force of the earthquake from 8.9 to 9.0 on the
open-ended Richter scale, making it the largest recorded anywhere
in the world since 1964.

The quake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on
Sunday, triggering walls of water up to 10 metres high that surged
thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean at speeds of up to
800 km/h. The waves smashed into seaside towns and resorts,
sweeping away boats, homes, fishermen and holidaymakers, including
a grandson of Thailand's king and scores of foreigners on Christmas
holidays.

Scientists said the death toll could have been lower if the
region had a tsunami warning network like one that exists for
Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America.

Apart from the worst-hit nations of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India
and Thailand, people were swept to their deaths as far away as
Somalia - about 6000 kilometres from the quake epicentre on the
east coast of Africa - and in Malaysia (52), Burma (36), Maldives
(43) and Bangladesh (2). Large waves also struck Kenya, after
hitting Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles.

In many areas, such as Sumatra, which was closest to the
epicentre of the quake, communications were still down yesterday.
The numbers of dead could continue to rise for days or even weeks
as rescue teams penetrate into the remoter coastal villages.

Witnesses in Thailand described seeing waters disappearing away
from the beaches in the minutes before the waves struck. Scientists
say the effect is caused by tidal waves sucking shallow coastal
waters out to sea before returning them as a massive wall of
water.

In Indonesia, soldiers searched for bodies in tree tops and in
the wreckage of homes smashed by the tsunami in Sumatra's Aceh
province. Volunteers laid bodies of children in rows under sarongs
at makeshift morgues. Others were stacked in white fish crates.
Wailing mothers clutched dead babies.

In Sri Lanka, hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and
fearing another devastating wave yesterday sheltered in temples and
schools. The southern coastal town of Galle, a major industrial hub
famed for its historic fort, had been submerged by a nine-metre (30
feet) wave.

In India, more than half of the more than 5000 deaths reported
by last night occurred in the state of Tamil Nadu and the former
French enclave of Pondicherry. At least 100 people died in the
major coastal city of Chennai.

In the Indian-ruled Andaman and Nicobar Islands, directly north
of the quake epicentre, about 1000 people are believed to have
died.